The History of the Harlequinade, Volume 1 (of 2)

Who was Harlequin before he became a patchwork clown? This volume traces the iconic comic figure back through two thousand years of performance tradition, from ancient Greek mimes and Roman pantomimes to the bustling stages of Renaissance Italy. Maurice Sand reconstructs the improbable survival of comic performance through Church prohibitions and medieval obscurity, showing how the masks and stock characters of the commedia dell'arte crystallized from a wild genealogy that includes Atellane farce, wandering jugglers, and marionette theatres. The book dissects Harlequin's black half-mask, his patchwork costume, his bat and rabbit-tail, and his transformation from rural simpleton to the witty trickster we recognize today, culminating in the revolutionary performances of actor Domenico Biancolelli. This is theatre history as detective work: rigorous, richly detailed, and occasionally startling in its revelation that the clown has always been with us, merely changing faces.